Page 59 of Boom
With a shaky laugh, she said, "Well, I mean I know that you're in charge of the actual work, but it's all a team effort, right?"
Normally, I might see it that way. But I'd come across Waverly's type before. She was the kind of person who'd never get her hands dirty, but would gunk up the gears for everyone else.
I told her, "You deal with your crew. I'll deal with mine."
She frowned. "You mean the film crew?"
"Thatisyour crew, isn't it?"
"But what about everyone else?" she said. "Like plumbers and…" She made a vague waving motion with her hand. "…other construction people?"
"They're part ofmycrew," I said. "And I'm telling you up front, they take orders from me. Not you. Got it?"
Her fade reddened, and she lowered her voice. "Surely, you don't think I'd cause trouble? I mean, you and I – we…" Her words trailed off, and she glanced toward the front porch, where the others stood watching us.
Waverly barked out, "Hey! What areyoulooking at?"
None of them answered.
But hey,Ihad something worth saying. "Andthat'swhy you're not in charge."
Waverly whirled to face me. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, I won't have you barking at my crews."
"What?" she sputtered. "Like a dog?"
A female dog, maybe.But I wasn't into name-calling, so all I said was, "Just stay in your own lane, and we'll be fine."
Her lips pursed. "We'll see about that." With a huff, she turned and stalked toward the familiar white SUV.
I watched with only mild interest as she yanked open the passenger's side door, pulled out her cell phone, and climbed into the passenger's seat, slamming the door shut behind her.
The sounds of muffled yelling quickly followed.
I didn't know who she was calling, but I wasn't worried. She was replaceable. I wasn't. And we were killing it in the ratings.
I was on firm ground, and the last thing I needed was an uptight rookie acting like she was in charge. It was the kind of thing that led to mistakes, or worse, accidents.
Thatwasn'tgoing to happen. Not on my job.
And already I had more than enough trouble with Arden Weathers, who was proving to be more persistent than I'd expected.
Still, I had to give her credit. She'd done a decent job of stalling the film crew while I finished up with the hoses. And she'd kept her mouth shut, too.
I glanced toward the house. Sometime within the last minute, the film crew had disappeared inside. But Arden, she'd moved away from the front door, and was now standing alone on the edge of the porch.
Her jeans were loose, and her shirt was nothing special – a basic blue pullover, thick enough to be decent regardless of what she was doing.
Still, I could see the rising and falling of her chest and the tilt of her chin as she eyed me with a look that I'd never seen – or at least, not on Arden, and never directed at me.
As our eyes met, I had to ask myself,"What was she thinking?"
Chapter 23
Arden
He was magnificent.It was true that I didn't like him, but I had to respect the way he'd handled the situation with Waverly.
